Contents

Executive Summary

As part of its public engagement on climate change, Scottish
Government has been running social marketing campaigns to inform
people about the low carbon behaviours they can adopt and motivate
them to take up these actions. Research into behaviour change and
communication has been carried out to inform these campaigns and
make them as effective as possible. This document summarises
insights from this research, and presents some results from the
attitude and behaviour tracking work carried out alongside each
campaign. The key findings include:

1. Climate change is not the main motivator behind the
adoption of low carbon behaviours. People often perceive
climate change to be a distant, global problem, not relevant enough
to their everyday lives to warrant continued attention and
effort.

2. To influence people, you have to appeal to their
immediate concerns. Health, financial gains, and
improvements to the local environment should be emphasised
alongside, or instead of, carbon savings.

3. A wide range of influences govern each
behaviour. The fewer the external influences on a
particular behaviour, such as the availability of seasonal food or
bus routes, the easier that behaviour will be to adopt. Campaigns
focused on behaviours with comparatively few external influences,
such as saving energy or walking instead of driving for short
journeys, are likely to be more successful.

4. Framing behaviours within a wider picture of collective
action and shared responsibility can inspire individuals to
act. People are more likely to buy into green
communications if the focus is on creating change together, as a
community or nation. It makes individual actions seem more
effective and more meaningful.

This document focuses on research commissioned in Scotland to
inform the Scottish Government's social marketing and
communications campaigns. However we are aware that, where similar
research has been undertaken for other geographies, such as the
UK as a whole, the
findings tend to be consistent with these Scottish findings.